


Progress Almost Complete

by FanGirlStephie



Category: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TV 2012), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, clone, turtle tot
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-01-26
Updated: 2016-05-16
Packaged: 2018-05-16 11:17:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,119
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5826493
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FanGirlStephie/pseuds/FanGirlStephie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>April wakes up one morning to find a 5 year old Donnie in her room. The tot Donnie gives her a letter, from Dark Donatello. Now the turtles and company have to take care of this small clone. On top of figuring out what exactly what they should do about what's all going on. Dark Don is planning on doing something.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own anything. Nickelodeon owns tmnt.  
>  Also this is a comic on my DA page.

It was another usual night in New York. Except for the lone figure running across the rooftops. His long tail was curled around something, holding it. In his arms he carried a small figure, his big gauntlets covered the small one almost completely. He held the turtle child close to his chest in a very protective way. The small turtle looked up to him with big red brown eyes.  
“Dede. Where are you taking me?” The child's small voice spoke.  
Dark Don didn't look down to the child, but looked on ahead. “I'm taking you to a very lovely lady. She will take care of you.” He answered.  
“Why? I like **you** taking care of me.” The turtle child answered. He leaned into Dark Don's plastron, closing his eyes. He liked to listen to the sound of his caretaker's heartbeat. It always managed to sooth him.  
“Because my little Donatello, I have some business that I must take care of. Big turtle business that you can not be around for. But don't worry, April will give you exactly what you need.” Dark Don answered. He gently stroked the top of the young Don's head. More to sooth himself than the child.  
Soon he stopped at a familiar balcony, April's apartment. More specifically, the widow to her bedroom. The purple clone shifted the small Don to one arm, then opened the window with the other. He then placed the young Donnie into the room. He moved his tail around to the tot and gave him the backpack. The little Don took the backpack in his small arms. Then Dark Don placed his hands on little Don's shoulders.  
“Here we are my little Donatello. You must promise me you will be on your best behavior. Wait until April wakes up, then give her this. Ok?” Dark Don said as he gave the Donnie tot an envelope.  
“Ok Dede. I promise I will.” The little Donnie responded. He put the backpack on the floor and took the letter.  
The small Donatello looked just like the real Donatello. Except for a few things that is. The biggest thing is that this Donnie was only 5 years old. The next thing was that little Donnie had on an old worn purple t-shirt. One of the sleeves seemed to be cut off. Also, little Donatello did not have any sort of ninja type stuff on him whatsoever.  
Dark Don then gently took little Don's face into his hands and then kissed his forehead. “I will miss you so much my little Donatello. Don't forget to read your books and learn as much as you can.” Dark Don said.  
Little Donnie went onto his tippy-toes and grabbed Dark Don's face. Then he stretched as much as he can up to kiss Dark Don's forehead. Dark Don smiled and leaned down, making sure little Don didn't hit the crest on top of his head.  
“Bye bye Dede. I'll miss you too. Come back soon ok?” Little Don said.  
A sad smile graced Dark Don's lips. “Ok my little Donatello.” He said. Then he stood up, closed the window, turned and left.  
Little Don looked around the room. There was a lot of interesting things in here. He wanted to see what they all were. But Dede told him to never take or go through someone else's things without permission. So instead he curled up on the floor next to his backpack. He closed his eyes and took and nice few hours long nap.  
When the sun started to rise, rays shone through the window. Little Don peeked his eyes open as the rays hit his face and woke him up. He yawned and got up. He rubbed the sleepiness out of his eyes and went over to April's bed. There he waited right besides the bed for April to wake up.  
April reached over sleepily to shut off her alarm. After a couple of attempts, she got it off and opened up her eyes. The first thing she saw was two big red brown eyes starring at her. Of course she jumped out of bed with a short yelp. She held a hand at her heart as she looked down at the child.  
“Did I scare you April?” Little Don asked with a concerned look. “I'm sorry. I don't want you to be scared.” He looked as if he was going to cry.  
“No no, you didn't scare me. I was just startled. I wasn't expecting to wake up to a little turtle in my room.” April said with a forced grin.  
Her attempt to calm him down seemed to have worked. Little Don smiled up at her. Then he held out the envelope to her. “Dede gave this to me to give to you.” He said.  
April took it, wondering who in the world “Dede” was. Also, if this was really Donnie or not. She opened it and took out the letter. She saw there was a flash drive also in the envelope. She then looked at the letter and read it.  
 **Dear April,  
I apologize for the startling awakening. The child you see before you is not the Donatello you know. This one is a clone. But he doesn't know that, so please don't tell him. I don't wish for him to know that yet. He's too young to understand. But anyways, I have left him in your care. There are some things I need to take care of and he can not be around when I am doing so. Shredder is close to creating a perfect clone of Donatello. If he does so, my little Donatello will be destroyed. Along with myself, but that's beside the point. I can not allow Shredder to harm my little Donatello. So I ask you April, please take care of him for me. I beg you. And please don't refer to me as Dark Donatello when my little Don is around. He calls me Dede and doesn't know our real names or that we're clones too. Dark Mikey is Mimi, Dark Raph is Red, an Dark Leo is Blue.  
Sincerely,  
Dark Donatello  
P.S. The flash drive is for Donatello. It has much needed information in it that he'll want to see.**  
April looked at the letter with wide eyes. She couldn't believe what she just read. Was this seriously happening? Well at least it answers the questions she had. But now it raised more questions. A bunch of questions swarmed around in her head.  
She looked over to little Don. He looked back at her with such cute big red brown eyes. How could she even think about saying no? He really was so cute. But she cant take care of him here. She should take him down to the lair. The turtles and Splinter would be better at taking care of him then she would.  
“My name is little Donatello.” Little Donnie said, snapping April out of her thoughts.  
She smiled at him a stood up. “Hi little Donatello. I just need to change my clothes and then I'll take you somewhere. Ok?” She said.  
“Ok. Where are we going?” He said as he watched April take clothes out of her dresser drawers.  
“We're going to a place called the lair. There you'll meet some good friends. Now I'm going to go change. You stay right there. Don't go out of this room.” April said. Then she went to get dressed.   
Later April managed to sneak little Don down into the sewers without anyone seeing him. April carried him down the ladder. Little Don walked besides April, holding her hand. He wore his backpack on his shell. They soon got to the lair. April picked up little Donnie and went through the turnstiles. She put him down once she got through them.  
“Guys! Get out here!” She called out. The turtles came out of the kitchen once they heard her.  
“April! You're early- and what is that?” Donnie said, first really excited then confused.  
“Aww! He's so cute. Look at his little shirt and his little backpack. Who is he April?” Mikey gushed over the cute turtle tot.  
“April, what's going on here?” Leo asked seriously. April gave Leo the letter. The other three turtles gather around Leo and read the letter. When they were done, they were all shocked. Donnie took the envelope and took out the flash drive.  
“I don't believe it. I should look at this right away.” Donnie said.  
“I think it's so cute!” Mikey said then he went over to little Don. “Hi there little guy. I'm Mikey. What's your name?”  
“My name is Little Donatello. It's nice to meet you Mikey.” Lil Don answered.  
“Aww! That's so cute! Now we have a Lil Don and big Don!” Mikey gushed so much. He could barely keep himself from taking Lil Don and hugging and squeezing him.  
Lil Don smiled. “Oh, I didn't know there was another Donatello.” He said. Lil Don then went over to where the other turtles were. He looked up at Donnie.  
Donnie looked down at Lil Don. “Uh, hello there.” He said. Lil Don smiled and let out a small laugh.  
“You look just like Stuffy.” He said. Donnie blinked a couple times, not knowing how to respond to that. But he didn't have to since Lil Don took off his backpack and opened it up. He took out a stuffed turtle toy with a purple masked sewn onto it.  
“This is Stuffy. He's a stuffed animal toy that is a turtle. Dede gave him to me. He also made his mask and sowed it on so it wouldn't fall off.” Lil Don explained.  
“Oh. That's... great. How cute.” Donnie said awkwardly. He then pat Lil Don's head. Leo shook his head in amusement.  
“You need to work on how to interact with children Donnie.” Leo said as he walked up to Lil Don and then knelt down. “Sounds like he is very special. Dede must really care about you.” Leo then said to Lil Don with a smile.  
Lil Don nodded with a big grin on his face. “Oh yes! Dede is the best caretaker. He told me that Stuffy is a scientist, so he knows everything. And he said that Stuffy will always protect me.” He said while hugging the plush toy really close to him.  
“That's amazing. My name is Leo. These other turtles are my brothers. The big grumpy turtle over there is Raph.” Leo said while pointing back at Raph with his thumb.  
“I'm not grumpy.” Raph muttered under his breath, with his arms crossed.  
Leo then stood and held out his hand for Lil Don to take. “Come on Lil Don. Let's go to the kitchen to get you something to eat.” He said. Lil Donnie gladly took Leo's hand and was lead off to the kitchen.  
When they left, Donnie looked confused. “Since when was Leo good with children?” He asked out loud.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> By the way, April had to go back home for school or whatever.

The group gathered around the kitchen. Mikey gladly sat Lil Don down on his lap so Lil Don could eat his homemade pizza. Mikey was ecstatic that somebody finally loved his homemade pizza.  
“I can't believe he's actually eating Mikey's pizza.” Raph commented.  
“But he does eat well. And that's a good sign. It shows he was cared for.” Leo said as him and his brothers observed Lil Don as they ate.  
“There's no sign of malnourishment on the outside. Knowing the situation, he probably has some nutrients that are low. But who doesn't these days?” Donnie said.  
“We have to admit, it seems “Dede” has taken good care of the kid. So why did he just leave him at April's?” Raph said.  
“I'm not sure Raph. We'll have to find that out on our own. Let's try to get Lil Don to talk about his life with “Dede”. Make it subtle of course.” Leo responded.  
Soon Lil Don has eaten his full. He held onto his Stuffy as Mikey put him down. Mikey cleaned up and put away the pizza. Raph and Mikey make their way out of the kitchen and to the dojo for morning training. Leo turned to Donnie on his way out.  
“I'm going to tell Master Splinter about everything before training starts. Donnie, you are to look at that flash drive after training. Look at it thoroughly and then report it to us.” Leo told him.  
“Of course Leo. I'll make sure to do that.” Donnie responded. Then he looked around. “Uh... Where did Lil Don go?” He asked.  
Leo and Donnie both got wide eyes and rushed over to the dojo. They quickly opened the door to see Mikey and Raph already sparring with each other. Lil Don was sitting on the sidelines watching with a big smile and lots of interest. Lil Don had Stuffy sitting next to him to watch also.  
“What is going on here?” Leo asked. Raph and Mikey both stopped and looked at Leo.  
“Well Lil Don came in the dojo behind us. He asked what this room was. So we told him and then he asked what we do in here. So we were having a little spar to show him.” Mikey explained. Lil Don clapped in applause with a grin on his face.  
“You're teaching him ninjutsu!?” Leo asked.  
“No Leo. We were just showing him ninjutsu. I mean, he's going to learn eventually. And he was curious. What's the big deal?” Raph immediately said, stopping Leo from lecturing. Leo went up to Raph and spoke quietly so Lil Don wouldn't hear.  
“It's fine Raph. But I'd rather none of us make any decisions like introducing him to ninjutsu quite yet. We first need to discuss things.” Leo explain.  
“Ok got it. But it wasn't anything real big.” Raph said back. Then everyone turned as Master Splinter came out. Leo's eyes went wide as he realized it was time for training, and he hasn't explained Lil Don to Splinter yet!  
Splinter looked at each of the turtles in the dojo. Leo gave a nervous grin. Mikey waved happily with a smile. And Lil Don looked at Splinter with curiosity. The rat sensei returned the look back to the small turtle. Then he turned to his sons and waited for the explanation.  
“Good morning sensei. This is Lil Don! We're taking care of him for a bit. Isn't he so cute?” Mikey sort of explained. Donnie went up to Splinter and handed him the letter.  
“Just read this sensei.” He said as he held it out for him. Splinter quickly read the letter. The he gave a nod of understanding and gave it back to Donnie.  
“I see. I hope you all don not take this responsibility lightly.” He said. Then the turtle brother all stood in position for training. Lil Don loved watching them. He payed attention to every move the turtles preformed.  
After training, Mikey immediately took Lil Don to the tv. He said that Lil Don needed to get “educated on good tv shows”. Raph agreed with him as long as it wasn't Space Heroes. Leo of course disagreed with what Raph said,arguing that Space Heroes was great. Donnie went straight to the lab to finally take a look at that flash drive his clone left wanted him to see. He's been just itching to know what was in it. But first a quick check for viruses.  
So Donnie plugged it in and took a look at what was on it. There was only documents on it. Donnie guessed that Dark Don wanted him to read these. Perhaps what it is will shed some light as to why. So Donnie opened up the one marked as “first”. He was beyond surprised at what he read.  
“What? Oh sewer apples.” Donnie said.


	3. Chapter 3

Donnie sat back in his chair and processed what he just read. His clone at first didn't like the idea of another clone Donatello, like anyone would expect. But over the time he took care of Lil Don, he ended up loving him. But now Shredder has perfected his cloning technique and if a perfect Donnie clone is made, Lil Don is finished. And Dark Don has a plan to stop this. A plan that Donnie has major mixed feelings for.  
Something in Donnie made it harder for him to breath. His heart was pounding. Is it fear of a perfect clone under Shredder's power? Is it because of Dark Don's outrageous plan? Or maybe he's feeling exactly what Dark Don felt when he found out about it. Panic, for Lil Don's safety.  
Donatello would be lying if he said he didn't feel any sort of connection to Lil Don. There was just something there. A familiarity, an unspoken bond, like how one would feel in a different country when meeting someone else from theirs. Maybe this is what Dark Don felt that lead him to end up loving Lil Don?  
But Donatello had to go tell his brothers what's going on! They had to stop this from happening! They had to stop Shredder's cloning and stop Dark Don. So Donnie got up and was about to run out of the lab. But he immediately stopped when he saw Lil Don standing right there in front of him.  
“Hey there little one. What are doing in here? I thought Mikey was showing you cartoons.” Donnie said.  
“Uncle Mikey was. And they are really funny. But I got bored and went discovering. This room is really neat! What is it?” Lil Don answered.  
'Of course he would find this room. The lab is practically in my DNA. And Mikey must of convinced him to call him Uncle Mikey.' Donnie thought. “Well this is my lab. I work on experiments and inventions to help my family.” Donnie then answered.  
Lil Don then smiled really big. “Like Dede does!” He said all excited.  
“Yeah, like... like Dede does.” Donnie said with an awkward smile and a sweatdrop.  
“Can I help, Donatello?” Lil Don asked with the sweetest look on his face. Donnie just couldn't say no to that face. So that's why Master Splinter always let him tinker with everything.  
“Sure you can. And you can call me Big Don if you want to. Since you're Lil Don.” He said. Then Donnie picked up Lil Don and placed him at an empty space on the table.  
“Well, until Mikey realizes you wondered off, what would you like to work on? I can't let you work with any chemicals or really dangerous tools so we're kind of limited here. Is there anything you would like to create?” Donnie asked as Lil Don looked around from his new height.  
Then Lil Don lite up as he thought of something. “Can we make something for Dede when he comes to get me?” Lil Don asked. That struck Donnie as he remembered what he read. He imagined Dark Don going through with his plan. And he thought of what that meant for Lil Don. But when he saw how precious and excited Lil Don was of his idea, he just had to humor the little guy.  
“Ok sure. What do you want to make for him?” He said. He smiled as he saw Lil Don think, doing exactly what he always does. With his hand at his chin and looking down in concentration.  
“Hmm. Dede doesn't like when his brothers are all loud and stuff. Can we make something that would block out the noise but he could still talk to me?” Lil Don asked when he thought of something. This got Donnie thinking.  
“Well it would have to accommodate our ear slits, but it can't be connected cause of his head spikes, and would have to completely filter out noise at a certain distance, but would have to make sure your voice remains clear. It would be hard to do, but not impossible. The hard part would be to make sure all the noise close to him doesn't get blocked as well.” Don answered.  
“Can we start working on it now Big Don? Please?” Lil Don asked all excited. Donnie smiled. “Of course we can.” He said.  
Donnie got out paper and pencils to make drafts of the product. Both Dons drew ideas of what it could look like while sticking their tongues out. They laughed as they shared ideas and began sharing life stories. Donnie shared stories of his turtle tot days and Lil Don told about life with Dede. Donatello realized that Lil Don didn't have much of a relationship with Dark Don's brothers. It was something like roommates that didn't bother with each other. Honestly it kinda sounded like Dark Don went out of his way to limit Lil Don's interactions with his brothers.  
“Lil Don, is there ever a time that you aren't with Dede?” Donnie asked. Lil Don nodded as he drew.  
“Yeah, they have to watch over me when Dede goes out to get stuff we need.” He answered.  
“What's that like? How do you feel about Dede's brothers?” Donnie asked. He was so curious now.  
“I don't know. Blue doesn't really talk to me. But he does tell me to do certain things. Like to move or to go play or to stop helping Mimi. Mimi always has me help him with his pranks. I don't get it, but Mimi says they're really funny. Red doesn't think so. Red kinda scares me. He's always looking at me in this way. Like this.” Lil Don said. Then he looked up at Donnie and squinted his eyes with a big frown, as if he was trying to blow something up with his mind.  
“I see. Well I hope you like my brothers a little better.” Donnie said with a little chuckle.  
So Dark Leo treats him as some kind of chore he's forced to do. He probably feels he shouldn't have to. Dark Mikey treats him as a way to have fun without getting into trouble. And then Dark Raph simply doesn't like him. He probably didn't even bother to try anything different then glaring at him all the time. It's no wonder Lil Don is scared of Dark Raph.  
“You're brothers are great! Uncle Mikey is so funny. And Leo is real nice. Raph is grumpy but he's not scary. And he can be funny too.” Lil Don said.  
“That's good. I'm glad you like them. What about Master Splinter? The big rat you saw. How did you feel about him?” Donnie then asked. He was glad Lil Don's feelings about the clones didn't carry over to his brothers. But now he was wondering about Splinter? Did he recognize him?  
“I don't know. He looks sad. Can we go give him a big hug when we're done? Dede always feels better when I give him a hug. He loves my hugs.” Lil Don answered.  
“Of course we can. He would really like that.” Donnie said. Oh Dark Don was right! He really is so cute!  
Just then Mikey and the other two turtles burst in. “Donnie! I've lost-!” Mikey began but then they saw the two of them. The three of them all gave a collective sigh of relief.  
“Oh thank god. He was with Donnie.” Leo said with a hand at his chest.  
“Mikey, you are never watching him again. That scared me out of my shell!” Raph said with a look at Mikey.  
“It's not my fault he's really quiet when he walks! And that cartoons are very distracting.” Mikey defended himself.  
“I'm not even going to bring the fact that you're supposed to be a ninja.” Raph said with his arms crossed. Donnie put Lil Don off the table and Lil Don ran over to them with a big smile.  
“Big Don and I are making a gift for Dede! I can't wait til he sees. He's gonna love it!” Lil Don said.  
“Really? That's great Lil Don. I'm sure he'll love it.” Leo said with a smile.  
“You're just a little inventor aren't you?” Raph said as he ruffled Lil Don's head playfully.  
“Aww! I can't wait to see that.” Mikey gushed. Donnie frown at seeing his brothers say these things. They didn't know about Dark Don's plan yet. Donnie then got up from the chair.  
“Guys. I need to talk to you. But first I'm going to take Lil Don to see Splinter. Ok?” Donnie said.  
“Ok then.” Leo said, wondering why Donnie was so serious all of a sudden. They had no idea what Donnie was going to tell them. Lil Don then took Donnie's hand and they both left to go see Splinter.


End file.
